Costly medical claims and a budgeting oversight have led city leaders to approve the use of reserve funds to pay for employee health insurance benefits.

But it might not be enough to get through the end of the year.

The Seymour Common Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday to take $200,000 from the rainy day fund to help pay existing and future medical claims, leaving $216,521 in emergency funds for the next two months.

Clerk-Treasurer Fred Lewis said the city most likely will need more money before the year is up.

“I doubt it will cover us for the rest of the year,” he said.

Lewis said part of the

problem is the result of a budget cut in 2011 that was never made up.

“We had to cut $500,000 last year from insurance, and we never put it back in the budget,” Lewis said. “That, and we had a bad year as far as claims go.”

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